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Friday, May 4, 2012

Activist cries danger as China hints at solution

Blind
Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng's high-profile pleas for U.S. sanctuary upped the pressure Friday on Washington and Beijing to
resolve his fate, with China
saying he could apply to study abroad.

Robert
S. Wang, center, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, walks
with an unidentified U.S. embassy staff outside the hospital where blind
activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng is recuperating in Beijing Friday, May 4, 2012.
The blind Chinese activist at the center of a diplomatic standoff between the United States and China said Friday his situation is
"dangerous," and that American officials have been blocked from
seeing him for two days and friends who have tried to visit have been beaten up.

The
slight concession, offered in a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement, pointed to
a possible way out of the diplomatic standoff. Even so, he remained in a
guarded Beijing hospital ward, unable to see U.S. officials.
His wife's movements are being monitored, he said, and the couples with their
two children feel in danger.

"I
can only tell you one thing. My situation right now is very dangerous,"
Chen said. "For two days, American officials who have wanted to come and
see me have not been allowed in."

A
self-taught lawyer and symbol in China's
civil rights movement, Chen embroiled Washington
and Beijing in
their most delicate diplomatic crisis in years after he escaped house arrest
and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy last week. He left six days later under a
negotiated deal in which he and his family was to be safely relocated in China.
But he then upended the agreement by saying they wanted to go abroad.

Since
his release to a Beijing hospital where he was
reunited with his wife, son and daughter, Chen's calls to The Associated Press,
other foreign media and friends have resonated around the world, and even
become part of Washington
politics in a presidential election year.

On
Thursday, he called in to a congressional hearing in Washington,
telling lawmakers he wanted to meet U.S. Secretary of State Clinton, who is in Beijing for annual
security talks.

"I
hope I can get more help from her," Chen said.

While
publicly Washington has said little and Beijing has shown little
inclination to budge, contacts have taken place. Clinton met Chinese President Hu Jintao and
other top leaders, though officials declined to say if Chen's case was
discussed. The Foreign Ministry statement was among the first signs of
progress. In it, a spokesman said Chen as a normal citizen may apply to study
overseas.

"Chen
Guangcheng is currently being treated in hospital. As a Chinese citizen, if he
wants to study abroad he can go through the normal channels to the relevant
departments and complete the formalities in accordance with the law like other
Chinese citizens," the statement said without elaborating. At a later
briefing spokesman Liu Weimin declined to elaborate.

While
the statement only reiterates the normal rights of a Chinese citizen, it
underscored the government's openness to letting him go and that Chen faces no
criminal charges. Though he has lived under arrest at his rural home along with
his family for 20 months, his treatment has appeared to be the retribution of
local officials angry at Chen's activism.

Chen
has exposed forced abortions and other abuses in his community as part of China's
population controls.